BAR HARBOR — Looking at all the risk factors one has for heart disease is the aim of Mount Desert Island PATCH — Planned Approach to Community Health — in the screening clinics it conducts throughout the island.

“An individual who has a total cholesterol that may be normal, but smokes and doesn’t exercise, is as much at risk for heart disease as someone who has only elevated total cholesterol,” Kelly Tibbetts, MDI PATCH health educator, said in a prepared statement. “The total cholesterol number means nothing without looking at the big picture.”

According to Tibbetts, a cholesterol reading is just one of the risk factors involved in heart disease. At PATCH screenings, each client has their cholesterol screened, blood pressure measured, and height and weight calculated.

Once those figures are gathered, each client is asked a few questions about their health history to determine other risk factors, including whether or not one has family history of heart disease, status of physical activity, and smoking history.

Clients then set goals to help reduce those risks. The goals may involve joining a smoking cessation program, beginning a fitness program, and modifying diet, such as decreasing saturated fat intake.

A community screening will be held from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the Mount Desert Public Health Nursing Association office on Summit Road in Northeast Harbor. Cost is $7. Two other screenings will be held in Bar Harbor at the municipal building on Dec. 7 and at the MDI YWCA on Jan. 4.

To schedule an appointment, call the PATCH office at 288-5081, Ext. 203.